Sept. 9, 1875J 



NATURE 



411 



Tliat we know more of the fauna of Australia than of other 

 English colonies in different parts of the world is certain, but 

 no tlianks are due from us for this knowledge either to the 

 Imperial or to any of the Colonial Governments. The unassisted 

 enterprise of a private individual has produced the two splendid 

 works upon the Mammals and Birds of Australia, which we all 

 turn to with pleasure whenever reference is required to a member 

 of these two classes of Australian animals. Mr. Gould's 

 •'Mammals of Australia" was completed in 1863. Since 

 that period the little additional information received respecting 

 the terrestrial Mammals of Australia has been chiefly furnished 

 by Mr. KrefTt, of the Australian Museum, Sydney, in various 

 papers and memoirs. Mr. Kreflft has also written the letterpress 

 to some large illustrations of the " Mammals of Australia," by 

 Miss II. Scott and Mrs. II. Forde, in which a short account of 

 all the described species is given. On the Marine Mammal.", 

 however, which were scarcely touched upon by Mr. Gould, we 

 have a treatise by Mr. A. W. Scott published at Sydney in 

 ,1873, which contains a good deal of useful information con- 

 cerning the seals and whales of the Southern Hemisphere. 



The magnificent series of seven volumes of Mr. Gould's 

 "Birds of Australia" was finished in 1848. In 1869 a supple- 

 mentary volume was issued, containing similar full-sized illus- 

 trations of about 80 species. In 1863 Mr. Gould reprinted 

 in a quarto form, with additions and corrections, the letterpress 

 of his great work, and published it under the title of a " Hand- 

 book to the Birds of Australia." This makes a convenient work 

 for general reference. Of two colonial attempts to rival Mr. 

 Gould's series I cannot speak with much praise. Neither Mr, 

 Biggie's " Ornithology of Australia " nor ^Ir. Halley's proposed 

 "Monograph of the Australian Parrots" are far advanced 

 towards conclusion — indeed, of the last-mentioned work I have 

 seen but one number. 



Several large collections of birds have been made in the 

 peninsula of Cape York and adjoining districts of Northern 

 Queensland of late years, and it is a misfortune for science that 

 we have had no complete account of them. One of the largest 

 of these, however, made by Mr. J. T. Cockerel!, has luckily 

 fallen into the hands of Messrs. Salvin and Godman, and will, 

 I trust, be turned to better uses than the filling of glass cases 

 and the ornamentation of ladies' hats. 



It seems to me that there is still much to be done even in 

 birds in Northern Australia, and I cannot help thinking that 

 Port Darwin, the northern extremity of the trans-continental 

 telegraph, would be an excellent station for a collecting naturahst, 

 and one where many novelties, both zoological and botanical, 

 would certainly be met with. 



On the Snakes of Australia we have an excellent work 

 published in 1869 by Mr. Gerard KrefTt — one of the few 

 really working Australian naturalists, who, it appear.*, is not 

 appreciated in Sydney as he fully deserves to be. Mr. Kreflt, 

 during his long residence in Sydney, has become well acquainted 

 with the Ophidians of the colony and has devoted special at- 

 tention to them, so that he has the advantage of practical as well 

 as scientific acquaintance with his subject. The late Dr. Gray 

 has written many papers on the Tortoises and Lizards of 

 Australia. Of the latter we have to thank Dr. Giinther for a 

 complete monographic list just published in one of the newly 

 issued numbers of the "Voyage of the Erelms and Terror.^' 

 Most of the plates of this work were also issued in 1867 by Dr. 

 Gray in his " Fasciculus of the Lizards of Australia and New 

 Zealand." 



For information on the fishes of Australia reference must be 

 made to the ichthyological portion of the " Zoology of the Erebus 

 and Terror," by Sir John Richardson, and to the same author's 

 numerous papers on Australian fishes in the "Annals of Nat. 

 Hist." and " Transanctions " and "Proceedings" of the Zoo- 

 logical Society of London. The Count F. de Castelnau, who 

 seems to be almost the only working ichthyologist in Australia, 

 has recently published in the "Proceedings of the Zoological 

 and Acchmatisation Society of Victoria," several papers on the 

 fishes of the Melbourne fish-market and of other parts of Australia, 

 which include a complete synopsis of the known Australian 

 species. 



2. Papua and its Islands. 



I believe that my paper upon the Mammals and Birds of New 

 Guinea, published by the Linnean Society in 1858, was the 

 first attempt to put together the scattered fragments of our 

 knowledge of this subject. In 1859 a British Museum Catalogue 

 by Dr. J. E. and Mr. G. R. Gray, gave r hiimc of the 



then known members of the same two classes belonging to New 

 Guinea and the Aru Islands, and included notices of all Mr. 

 Wallace's discoveries. In 1862 Mr. Wallace gave descriptions 

 of the new species discovered subsequently to his return by his 

 assistant, Mr, Allen. In 1863 Dr. Finsch published at 

 Bremen an excellent little essay called " Neu-Guinea und seine 

 Bewohner," in which is given a complete account of our 

 then state of knowledge of the subject. But within these last 

 ten years still more serious efforts have been made by naturalists 

 of several nations to penetrate this terra incognita. Two emis- 

 saries of the Leyden iMu.seum— Bernstein and V. Rosenberg- 

 have sent home full series of zoological spoils to that establish- 

 ment, and have discovered a host of novelties. Of these the 

 birds have been described by Prof. Schlegel in his "Observa- 

 tions Zoologiques." An intrepid Italian traveller, Signor 

 L. M. d'Albertis, made a still further advance, when in Sep- 

 tember 1872 he accomplished the first ascent of the Arfak 

 Mountains,* and discovered the splendid Bird of Paradise and 

 other new species which I described in 1873. Quickly 

 following on his footsteps. Dr. A. B. Meyer penetrated still 

 further into the unknown interior, and reaped the abundant 

 harvest of which \ he has given us an account in six papers 

 lately published at Vienna. Dr. Meyer has now become 

 director of the Museum of Dresden, and is ro doubt occupied 

 in the further elaboration of his rich materials. In the mean- 

 while some accomplished Italian naturalists are engaged on the 

 collections of D'Albertis and his quondam companion Beccari. 

 Count Salvadori, who is at work on the birds, will take the 

 opportunity of preparing a complete account of the ornithology 

 of Papua and its islands, similar to that in Borneo, of which I 

 have already spoken. The Marquis Giacomo Doria has al- 

 ready published one excellent paper on "The Reptiles of 

 Amboina and the Ke Islands," collected by his compatriot 

 Beccaii, and is preparing other memoirs on the Mammals 

 and Reptiles of New Guinea and the Am Islands obtained by 

 D'Albertis. 



Dr. Meyer has lately given an account of his herpetological 

 discoveries in New Guinea, which comprehend several new and 

 most interesting forms, in a memoir read before the Academy 

 of Berlin ; and Dr. Bleeker some years ago gave a list of 

 the reptiles obtained by V. Rosenberg in that island, and enu- 

 merated the Papuan reptiles then known to him. 



All these expeditions, however, have been directed towards 

 the western peninsula of New Guinea, which alone is yet in any 

 way explored by naturalists. Of the greater south-eastern por- 

 tion of the island (unless we are inclined to give credit to Capt, 

 Lawson's wonderful exploits) we have as yet very little informa- 

 tion. A cassowary + and a kangaroo, J brought away by the 

 Basilisk from the southern coast, both proved to be new to 

 science, as did likewise a Paradise Bird obtained in the same 

 district by Mr. D'Albertis. § This is sufficient to give us an 

 idea of what we may expect to find when the interior of this part 

 of New Guinea is explored. And I may take this opportunity 

 of mentioning that a most active and energetic traveller is perhaps 

 at this very moment at work ther^. M. L. M. d'Albertis, ot 

 whose previous labours I have just spoken, returned to the East 

 last autumn. Letters received from him by his Italian friends in 

 June last state that he had at the time of writing already suc- 

 ceeded in reaching Yule Island near Mously Bay, on the south- 

 east coast of New Guinea, and proposes to establish his head- 

 quarters there for expeditions into the interior. 



3. New Ireland, New Britain, and the Solomon 

 Islands. 



I devote a few words specially to these islands because they are 

 easy of access from Sydney, and because their productions are 

 of particular interest, belonging, as they do, to the Papuan and 

 not to the Polynesian fauna. I have put together what is known 

 of the birds of the Solomon's group in a paper read before the 

 Zoological Society in 1S69, Seeing the interesting results 

 obtained from the examination of one small jar of birds col- 

 lected by an unscientific person, there can be little doubt of the 

 value of what would be discovered on the more complete investi- 

 gation of the group. As regards New Ireland and New Britain, 

 we have but scattered notices to refer to. The last-named island 

 is, we know, the home of a peculiar cassowary {Casttarius 

 bennetti). 



* See Nature, vol. viii. p. 501 (29). 



t Cazuarius picticollis, Scl., P.Z.S. 1875, p. 85. 



t Do*copsis luctuosa (D'Albertis), v. Garrod, P.Z.S. 



§ l\xra(tisca ragg^iaita, Sclatcr, P.Z.S. 1873, p. 559. 



[875, p. 48. 



